One important aspect in the retail setting is the monitoring of inventory and other conditions on shelves. At shopping facilities, the inventory on shelves containing different types of merchandise is monitored to make sure a sufficient quantity of inventory remains on the shelves. When a shelf intended to hold certain merchandise is empty, customers seeking that merchandise may become frustrated and may decide to forego purchase of that merchandise, leading to lost sales.
This monitoring of inventory on shelves may be made more challenging by the nature of the shelves themselves. In some shopping facilities, the shelves may be configured in a stacked arrangement where it may be difficult to see how much merchandise remains on any particular shelf. The shelves may be in the nature of modular shelfs that are moveable between a retracted position for holding merchandise (where the merchandise may not be readily visible) and a pulled out position (where the merchandise on the shelf may be more readily visible). It would be desirable to develop a monitoring system where the shelves are monitored when in the pulled out position.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.